


the end of all things

by prettyoddity



Series: intertwined. [3]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Drabble, F/F, F/M, Light Angst, M/M, Tragedy, fluff?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-05 23:54:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14629674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyoddity/pseuds/prettyoddity
Summary: If the universe does not want us to be together—  tell me, why do I find myself facing you again?





	the end of all things

**Author's Note:**

> yes the title is from a panic! at the disco song of the same title
> 
> completely unedited im very lazy lol so sorry for typos or grammar errors or Historical Inaccuracies™
> 
> i have no idea what i was thinking writing this but here u go i hope u enjoy :D

    Everybody knows the tale of the soulmates.

 

    How not every soul in each body of all the humans in the world has their own. How only a few pairs of souls— old or new, new or old— are made for each other. How these two souls are always supposedly meant to meet in each lifetime they inhabitat— no matter how, no matter where, no matter what body, _no matter what the circumstances._

 

    There’s various renditions of how the two souls can finally find each other and live peacefully as their other halves, though.

 

    One says it’ll just _happen_ — maybe during their final moments of life before the air is knocked out of both of them— that they _realize_ , and smile peacefully. Maybe it’s when they give up trying to comprehend how connected they feel with one another, but suddenly the answer is _there_. Or maybe… it’ll just come to them unexpectedly. Who knows?

 

    Another one speaks of the two souls being judged. Throughout every single life wherein they intercross, they’re judged. Criticized for their doings, teachings, mistakes, and impacts on those around them. Every single thing in every single life, even if that very soul won’t get to remember everything from their past lives. Only then will the two be determined if they really are souls bound to meet and stay together until time ends.

 

    Other versions are less-known, adding in absurd factors such as reincarnation, immortality, and even parallel universes. It could not helped, anyway, what with it being passed down verbally, that any hint of the original tale might be gone.

 

    A story which the many who have heard of it could only dream of having as their reality, too. Could only dream that they had somebody out there whose soul was made for their own, too.

 

    In the winter of 1941, Lee Jihoon, at the age of fourteen, hurries back home with a limping leg, scared and nearly freezing to death, after he sees his injured soldier father in secret.

 

    He had escaped from the guards when they eventually found him, but it didn’t completely end successfully. Most of them managed to seize him, making him slip, hit his chin on the icy land, and sprain his left ankle.

 

    Jihoon halts his sprinting, figuring he’s lost them for now, yelping as the pain shoots through his foot and lower leg when he tries to put anymore of his weight on it. Panting, he decides to sit by the curb, in a spot where the streetlight doesn’t shine on him, so he won’t be found.

 

    He curses under his breath, observing his surroundings. He doesn’t know the way here. How is he going to get home? In this cold, harsh weather, injured no less?

 

    His father comes back to mind, and he slams his hand onto the snow-covered ground, never going to be able to forgive himself if the other men had punished his father after discovering his son went to see him.

 

     _Stupid, stupid Jihoon. Why can’t I do anything right?_

 

    He wraps what material left covering his tiny torso tighter around him, pulling the cuffs of his slacks up, rolling his socks the reach beneath his knee down, to reveal his swelling ankle. His cold fingers meet the skin, adjusting his foot to get a better view— instantly regretting it as he winces at the sharp jolt of uncomfortable pain.

 

    “What am I gonna do? Fuck—”

    “If you think you’re about to die, don’t do it in front of me.”

    Jihoon straightens up, startled by the sudden voice. “...E-Excuse me?” he reluctantly calls, looking around.

 

    His breath hitches when he hears the faint crackling of snow behind him, and at once a young boy kneels down in front of him, a beat up hat sheltering his head. “I was joking. A little sprain never killed anybody,” he says softly, outstretching a shaky arm towards Jihoon’s leg. “Do you… do you mind?”

 

    He blinks, at a complete loss for words just looking at the boy, who was expectantly looking back up at him.

 

    “I-I’m not trying to do anything odd, I promise,” the boy adds, raising his gloved hands up, and Jihoon sighs in relief, nodding.

 

    Jihoon stiffens, biting his lip, as the boy gently places a hand below his ankle, lifting it up slightly. “How bad does it hurt?”

    “Hurts like a sprained ankle, it does,” he replies dryly, and it surprisingly earns him the sound of the boy’s bright laughter.

 

    The boy gingerly removes Jihoon’s loafers. “Take your sock off.”

    He obliges, the other’s hands never leaving his leg, supporting it. Jihoon hisses when the chilly air bites his skin, flinching, but the boy immediately _blows on his foot._

 

    “W-What are you doing?”

    “Um… I’m warming it up? I can’t touch it yet, I might hurt you.”

 

    Jihoon feels his heartbeat speed up— at the words of a stranger, even. How outrageous is that?

 

    In awe, he watches the boy shovel some ice (from the ground!) inside of the sock. He’s quite well-dressed in this weather, Jihoon thinks. He ties the rest of the sock into a knot when the snow fills half of it, before carefully lifting Jihoon’s leg again.

 

    Jihoon’s socks are thin and worn-out, so the coldness flows easily from the snow, through the fabric, to his skin.

 

    The two sit in silence, the snow falling on and around them, the mysterious boy dabbing the sock and its contents on his purplish-blue ankle and foot, Jihoon reacting to the pain occasionally.

 

    “My name is Soonyoung,” the boy he can now name mumbles. “Where do you live?”

    Jihoon blinks, and Soonyoung immediately takes it back. “What I meant was— it’s late, and you definitely need to get home, little boy,” he says, standing up. “But it doesn’t seem like you can go home alone in this condition.”

    “If my guesses are correct, it seems that my house is a bit far from here.”

    “...You came here without even knowing where this place is?”

    The smaller of the two nods sheepishly, and Soonyoung sighs. “I reckon you were being chased earlier?”

    Jihoon nods again, making Soonyoung chuckle. “You’re mysterious, kid. How about I walk you home, and they won’t be chasing you anymore?”

    “Name’s Jihoon, and I’m pretty sure a fourteen-year-old wouldn’t fancy being called a kid.”

    Soonyoung only raises his brows in response, before kneeling down again, back facing Jihoon. “But I’m sure a fourteen-year-old would fancy being carried home when they can’t walk. I know I would, anyway.”

    “W-We’re the same age? How come _you’re_ out here at this time? Why don’t _you_ go home? That’s—”

    “—Are you going to get on or what?” Soonyoung asks, looking back at him, and Jihoon swallows back any relatively surprised reaction.

 

    And that’s how Jihoon ends up hoisted up on the back of this boy he’s just met, firmly supporting his legs, yet sure not to hurt his injury. Under the whirl of snow, their noses scarlet, and teeth slightly chattering— they meet in a situation too fortunate, too coincidental to even be real.

 

    Jihoon and his mother offer him warm food, a warm bath, a warm place to stay. A warmth to touch them even in the harshest and chilliest nights. Soonyoung stays, until Jihoon’s father comes home and stops battling, until Soonyoung’s parents stop looking for him, until the war is over and the peace is hopefully settled once and for all.

 

     Jihoon and Soonyoung are eighteen when the war ends. Jihoon and Soonyoung are eighteen when their empire is freed from Japan, now set to be their own country. Jihoon and Soonyoung are eighteen when their lives go back to normal. Jihoon and Soonyoung are eighteen when they realize they’ve fallen in love— and have given up on denying it.

 

    Jihoon and Soonyoung are nineteen when they talk about the future, their dreams, and the things they want to do. Jihoon is nineteen when he starts studying again, and he realizes he wants to serve under the military, as his father had, after completing his education. Soonyoung is nineteen when his aunt gains legal guardianship over him, planning to have them live in a foreign country.

 

    After being separated, Jihoon and Soonyoung write letters to each other until they’re twenty-two. Soonyoung is still studying to be a nurse. Jihoon decides being a soldier wasn’t for him— he ends up being a journalist.

 

    In the summer of 1950, Jihoon visits Soonyoung in France— and he falls in love all over again. Falls deeper and deeper until he’s drowning.

 

    They holds their hands together, letting the shared body heat wrap the both of them in each other— Soonyoung letting a head explore in between his legs, Jihoon letting a mouth wander up and down the valley of his skin.

 

     _“I am always yours.”_

_“The way I feel will remain the same.”_

 

    Yet ‘always’ is only a word, and to ‘remain’ might as well be another empty promise.

 

 

* * *

 

 

    Hojin wakes up in a cold sweat, discovering she had been crying in her sleep. Again. The voice in her head keeps coming back. More frequent than ever. It all used to repeat the same things, but these days it’s been saying more.

 

    The male voice saying more than _“Hojin, it’s me_ — _your soul. My name is Soonyoung.”_ Or _“Hojin, do not ignore me. Do not be afraid. I’m here as an important role in your life.”_

 

    Because he says different things now.

 

     _“It’s me, Soonyoung. Don’t worry. You’ll meet that person soon.”_

_“Fate tells me you two are made to meet.”_

_“Don’t make the same mistakes I did.”_

_“Hojin, I am proud of you.”_

_“I’m more than happy that you will be able to do everything I couldn’t_ —”

 

    “—Mr. Son Hojin?”

 

    Hojin snaps back into the reality, sitting in a classroom that isn’t her school’s.

 

    She stares around the room, before finding the bespectacled man in front of them scanning the room. Raising a shaky hand, she says, “It’s _Miss_ Son Hojin. I have a boy’s name, I know.”

    Oh, yeah. This is her first group sleep therapy session. The man apologizes. “Do you mind sharing with us your sleep problems?”

    Hojin blinks, running a hand through her bob cut. “I… I have no problems falling asleep. It’s _staying_ asleep I can’t find myself doing.”

    The man nods, jotting down on his notepad— which makes him look snotty, she thinks, how unpleasant. “Do you have even the slightest idea of why this occurs?”

    “I experience the most bizzare dreams. And I remember them all— I write them all down.”

 

    A knock on the door distracts Hojin from her train of thought, and in enters a petite and timid looking girl, long flowy hair that reaches down her back, a pair of frames slipping down the bridge of her nose.

 

    The man with the notepad clears his throat. “And you are?”

    “A girl, but with a masculine name. I’m Jung Wooshin,” she replies coolly, before strutting to the seat at the far back of the room.

 

     _“Hojin-ah, I found him. That’s the soul of a person I fell in love with_ — _so many years and so many lives ago.”_

 

    “And I suffer from insomnia. Too many thoughts, too many dreams, as well. Too many _voices_.”

 

    Wooshin’s soul reunites with his soulmate when she’s sixteen. Hojin’s soul is just as reckless.

 

 

* * *

 

 

    In the universe where Soonyoung is born into the life of an Australian woman, and Jihoon is born into the life of a South American male— nearly on the opposite sides of the Earth— they wonder if all this running was worth it anymore. What was the point of it all anymore? Maybe they should just stop pursuing each other. Stop chasing after one another. Stop ruining the lives of the bodies they are possessing just to see each other. _Stop loving each other._

 

Soonyoung doesn’t talk to his body. He lets her follows her dreams and hobbies and everything she wants to do instead. He doesn’t limit her from anything.

 

    Evie is an orphaned girl, who gets taken into a rich foster family. She has a talent for writing, Soonyoung notices, and she allows her to practice this craft. From flowery words to simple sentences, she would write them all in earnest. She enjoyed writing poems the most.

 

    Evie is nineteen, and a creative writing student, when she starts to get recognition through her poems online. She makes friends through the Internet— a lot of them.

 

    Evie is twenty when her dreams shatter. Evie is twenty when she’s diagnosed with leukemia. She is also twenty when Soonyoung cannot handle seeing her so miserable, so he continues to have her make friends— and then, she meets Matías online. The boy who comes all across from Argentina and chats with her just to keep her company, talk about her poems, comfort her. Evie is twenty when she meets her best friend.

 

**[Evie]**

I’m happy I got to meet you, Matías

Please tell me your favorite line from one of my poems

It would mean the world to me.

 

**[matías]**

don’t make me cry, evie

i love all your poems, i don’t think i’d be able to choose

but if you would really REALLY need me to choose

it would be the one from ‘lay us down’

“in these coming years, many things will change,

but _the way i feel will remain the same_.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

    After Evie passes away, Soonyoung is a soul in limbo once more— a soul still praying, still _waiting_ , for the day he gets reincarnated as Soonyoung again— and the love of his lifetimes reincarnated as Jihoon again, too. The day he’ll get to hold him, tell him how much he had missed and longed for him, show him how much he still loved him, and just forget about the rest of the world.

 

    Even if there is no assurance his prayers will happen, Soonyoung waits.

 

     Jihoon and Soonyoung have gone through decades upon decades of life. To put it simply— they’ve seen it all. From the World War II to 9/11, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to the Taj Mahal.

 

    Like the tales from long ago say— the older the souls are, the wiser the person is. However, none of that was the case with both of them at all. Just like every romance film they have seen over and over say— maybe love really does make you do the most foolish of things.

  
    If they can only meet but cannot stay together until the end— what _is_ the point of having a soulmate?

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this in like 2 days so im sorry but thanks for reading!!!
> 
> also i just got over a terrible terrible writer's block so please understand if the quality is Not As Good as it usually is lmao
> 
> i also want to thank brendon urie because i was listening to the 'too weird to live, too rare to die!' album while writing this,, soonhoon's last shared dialogue and evie's poem lines are from 'the end of all things' so do check that song out i always get Emo
> 
> more or less i have a month and a half of free time left to write so i don't want it to go to waste !!!!!
> 
> anticipate my (hopefully) next work!!! hint: it's an AU narrating more of past events rather than present ;) and hmu on twt @prlnceksy i'd love to talk <333


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